ISLAMABAD: Flour prices have registered remarkable decrease in all the four provinces because of measures taken by the Federal Food Committee (FFC), The News learnt here on Saturday.

"The food department and district administrations are set to introduce special permit system from Jan 21 for sale of flour, using wheat lifted from the private sector," an official said. "The permits will be issued by food department officials after verification by district coordination officers," he added.

Commenting on the permit system, Pakistan Flourmills Association Member Hamid Waheed Sheikh told The News the association and the government had agreed that flourmills would release flour that was lifted from the private sector on a particular day every week after getting permit to be issued by a district food controller or district coordination officer.

"This flour will be sold in the NWFP, Sindh and Balochistan at Rs 350 per 20-kilogram bag," Hamid Waheed said. "The law-enforcement agencies will not hinder the sale such flour," he added.

According to Hamid Waheed, FFC Chairman Lt-Gen (retd) Farooq Ahmed has doubled the quota of flourmills from Jan 12 and supply of wheat to the NWFP, Balochistan and Sindh has increased, which has led to decrease in smuggling of flour from Islamabad and Punjab.

He claimed that now flour is available in abundance in the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad.

"As a result of efforts made by Islamabad district magistrate Amir Ali Ahmed, flour is now available in the Federal Capital Territory for as low as Rs 295 per 20-kilogram bag," Hamid Waheed claimed.

Meanwhile, The News learnt that 1,600 sacks of wheat of an Islamabad-based flourmill had been declared legal after some confusion between officials of the food department and mill-owners.


http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=12429


Shame on those who tried to starve the people of Pakistan by hoarding in an effort to defame the president and current government and create crisis.

Tell u somthing man There is no shame left in Our country and our people are shamless..

To be honest, there are some of my family members not close ones who are also involved in this stupid and unethical act. I always hated them for this and it wont change. But as i said i dont have much say since they are not that closly related otherwise lst time i saw them i would havt told em off.

But let me tell ya somthing, Government stepping in might help but not for long. What government need to do is that if they find some1 hoarding than they should empty the WARE HOUSES and sell it to markt at reasonablt price and give the money to poors.. Like as i said abt that member, he had his warehouses sealed by GOVERNMENT OFFICALs. what did he do, well remove the door and over night take out all the supply and sell it in the market.

NOW guess what, The officals didnt come back to count that stock nor have they questioned him abt him selling it and nor have they came back to check up the status of his warehouse.

First the GoP takes some moves that leads to SKY HIGH atta prices, and now they undo their mistakes.

Good that they undid it, but it doesn't make them any heroes because they were behind the problem in the first place. But again, good that they saw the mistake.

Just asking, but what is the 'normal' (reasonable) price for flour?

yes... because it was so wrong to assume that people would sell products within the law.

It is entirely the governments fault that the suppliers have broken the law and hoarded and smuggled atta illegally.

Yaar for an intelligent guy like yourself it amazes me that you make such points. For heavens sake people are breaking the law when they smuggle or hoard atta, there are agreements in place and contracts these people are supposed to abide with. If they don't, if they decide to break the law, how can you blame the goverment?

First of all, why change a perfectly well going system?
Secondly, we know how corrupt some people are, at the first chance they'ill smugle even their mothers out ...
Thirdly, The government could have set up a ban on exporting the essentiel atta / ghana and controlled our borders, I mean 150 trucks going out, thats just crazy when we then import atta that we just have exported.

Bro I know your opinion about our government and well you can have that opinion without me saying you are bad because of that, but our government couldn't have thought that everything was gonna be perfect when they let the market controle these atta prices.

Elements from our government are directly involved in this as always. (Also in our previous governments). They knew that the price would fly sky high, if they didn't then they seriously need some business classes. (Which they don't cause they knew, they aren't stupid after all.)

An example -> Ayub Khan era. West Pakistan had a governor who controled the borders strictly and guess who was stopped trying to smuggle wheat out of Pakistan, yes correct, Ayub Khans own SON!

Our government isn't perfect, especially not when we have culprits as the Chaudris in it...

My point Plati bhai is JUST this, the government hasn't done any heroeic act.

Peace!

With Salam and Regards /Shahid

I personally believe that it was Nawaz Sharif/Asif Zardari combo who engineered this Atta Episode to score political points on the present government.

But then again, everyone has their own version of seeing events.

Tsk tsk tsk.

I wouldnt doubt that, both those crooks are buisnessmen-turned-politicians.

Except of course, save us from bankruptcy. But thats not much is it (sarcasm).

It was shaukys' governement that is responsible for all this flour-crises. how? lets see it!

The governement was hoping and had boasted for long that they will achieve GDP of above 7 this time round.
The wheat production came out to be 22million tonnes,which was barely enough to meet the local needs. And putting this production in GDPs calculation, gave the GDP figure of 6.6,which was in no way acceptable to mushy and co. who for long have been trumpeting that they will hit the 7 mark.

Now shauky did, what no body can even think of. See how ingenious!
He authorised the change in stats to 23.5million tonnes from 22 million tonnes. This additional 1.5million tonnes of wheat production gave the figure of GDP 7.2

There were heated debates in cabinet..but the 'trouble-creators' were silenced. And when the news could have gotton out , the govt decided to export the 'surplus' wheat, to prove their point of surplus production and that the figure used in GDP calculation was right. Also chaudhrys and co earned commissions by this. Then

We exported 500,000 tonnes initially and later on we sold 300,000 tonnes more @ $210/tonne.

Our policy makers and thinktank, didnot see what was the condition of indian wheat-production. There was a serious shortage in india, which there govt decided to fulfill by importing over 5 million tonnes of wheat. When india went on a shoppig spree, the prices in international market soared to $400/tonne, and hence within 2-6 months we had to import the same wheat exported @ $210, for $410-420/tonne.

http://www.dawn.com/weekly/dmag/dmag21.htm

Please bro get the context

There is no context, you said that they haven't done anything 'heroic'. Now the word 'heroic' is ambiguous, so I took it as I found fit. And saying they haven't done anything is not only typical desi mentality, but it is also factually incorrect.

Bro, there is no need to go out of context, I was referring to the atta episode, no need for time wasting discussion about nothing

Then you should have specifically said in this 'atta episode', rather then left the interpretation out in the open. But ok, discussion dropped. Thanks for clarifying.

also how abt LOTA RASHID... i know he does this in pindi distrcits and he has warehouses full of stock. B4 he use to release ATTA and WHEAT during this kind of stitution so he could earn political point scoring and he himself use to travel wit the trucks he brings from his warehouse to sell it in Pindin market and he use to become popular....

So i wont rule him out again for hoarding... less not forget chauderies... I cant believe my district had shortage when it is sorrounded by villages and i know for fact tonnes of wheat is send to market in my distrcit.

That is a good news, here in New Zealand Atta comes from India and Pakistan, we have heard humors that we will face shortage of Atta soon, I had almost start practicing eating bread instead of roti, thank God days will be back to normal.

Salaam

Here's a funny video about the ataa/wheat issue:

Aata aagey peechey Awaam

allright little ones, i have to break it for you. there is a worldwide shortage of wheat and its by products and reason being lot more land in North America is being used for Corn cultivation for Bio-Diesal. Neither govt not Zardari/Nawaz Engineered this shortage, heck i doubt if they can engineer anything other than bull's ####. Wheat prices are already low in Pakistan and that was the reason for its shortage and prices have to come to international levels before the smuggling stops.